In My Father's Words:

Letters From A World War II Soldier

by

Bill McElvain

Walter McElvain, a graduate of Indiana University, was drafted and inducted into the U. S. Army at Bloomington, Indiana in 1943. In civilian life, he was a newspaperman in Bloomington. He was assigned to the 44th Infantry Division, Signal Company. Before his young life ended, he wrote letters home to his wife and parents. His early letters were from training camps in Washington, Louisiana, and Kansas. His later letters provide eyewitness testimonies of the Allied invasion of France and Germany and their pursuit of the Nazis on the European Front.

Walter disliked the Army and his letters complain about rain, mud, cold, loneliness, and homesickness. He also complained about the lack of freedom as a soldier in the war, especially freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.

In 1983 Walter's son, Bill, stumbled across a box of hundreds of war letters his father had sent home, along with some newpaper articles and army memorabilia. Years later, Bill selected 139 of the letters to compile into a book. He expanded the information in the letters by adding narratives such as troop movements, battlefield details, and other information the soldier could not divulge because of army censorship. Our history books tell us about battles, wartime strategies, and generals, but seldom do we hear eyewitness testimonies from a soldier on the ground.

This book is not a diary, journal, biography, or memoir. It is a book of letters arranged chronologically with narrative added. It is a story of wartime military life, but written primarily for civilians. The book has plenty of criticism of the Army. Walter wrote of his plans for a big family with a house in the country. All he could think about was when he could get a discharge and return to civilian life. He was a family man who was a victim of circumstances but was trying to make the most of it. Reading some of the letters, the reader cannot help but feel empathy for this soldier. This book is about the hardships and sacrifices made by a typical family during World War II. It is a wartime love story.

The book only contains 176 pages and is easy reading. It mentions the names of the towns and villages the 44th

division visited in France and Germany. The Appendix includes several memos that the Army issued to the soldiers of the 44th Division while they were on the European Front.

Who would like this book: History buffs; veterans, their families, and descendants; teachers; students; researchers; and Hoosiers.

Bill was born in Bloomington, Indiana, during the war. In 1966 he graduated from Arizona State University with a B.A. in Political Science. Now retired, he and his wife, Georgia, have two children and four grandchildren. Today, all the McElvain family members live in Arizona and Alaska.

The Greatest Generation

44th Infantry Division

Sample excerpts from Letters

.........We were cramped for space on the ship and literally fought for space like fleas on a dog's back. Our entire company was quartered in the last hold, at the bottom of the ship, and would never had made it had the ship gone down. We were fed two light meals a day. Ours usually came at about 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. There was a theater on board. The convoy was attacked by subs, U-boats, on two or three occasions, but we lost no ships or personnel.............. (Chapter 7)

........As we passed each settlement, chateau, or village, the people would line the road on either side and toss us apples, flowers, grapes, and the like, hold up their fingers in the "V" signal and cry "Bonjour', the French greeting. We would toss out some cigarettes or candy...........(Chapter 8)

.........Great buildings are in ruins, and in some places entire villages have been laid waste, and nothing is left but fallen stones and ashes. How many people are still buried under all the debris no one knows..................(Chapter 8)

..........I haven't told you about Midge, otherwise known as Axis Sally, yet. She comes on the air from Berlin, apparently each evening and directs her remarks to all the Americans in the European Theater of Operations............(Chapter 9)

..........And now I must tell you that if you hear any reports from the Germans that this outfit has been annihilated, don't you believe it. It's just another false bit of propaganda which the Nazis are busy spreading around. We have had in our company no one killed and and only a few injured (these from accidents).................(Chapter 9)

...........We've been getting a merry time from the enemy artillery for the past two nights, and I can tell you I was plenty scared. So was everyone else. You can tell the approach of a shell by a whishing sound as it moves through the air, but the deadly mortar gives no warning............(Chapter 9)

............We know how the Germans booby tap their dead, and so most of the men don't bother to pick up souvenirs off dead Nazis...................(Chapter 9)

...........I think one of the most pleasant things about being a civilian is freedon -- freedom of speech, of expression, and movement. If I am ever lucky enough to be a civiliam again, no one will ever tell me what I can or cannot write -- or do. You can only appreciate freedom when you no longer have it............(Chapter 9)

...........War is even worse than most people think, and no one who has seen it once ever wants anything to do with it. The papers only print the nice things, not the sordid details. Maybe that is why wars come so easily. No efforts are made to let the people know just what battle means, the diabolical ruthlessness with which a war machine is run......

(Chapter 10)

..........I am still in France where things are pretty hot. In war a man sees things he can never forget -- things which make him think.............(Chapter 10)

..........Herded along the riverbank at the entrance to Saarbrucken were thousands of polyglot people. We could not imagine what it all meant until later. Then, we saw them marching up the street -- the Poles, Russians, Hungarians, Italians, Romanians, Slovaks, and members of every race in Europe. These had been the slave laborers of the Nazis, gathered from the conquered territories of the Continent..............(Chapter 12)

.............The first and most prominent thing we noticed in traveling from France, and moving into Germany was the definitely hositle attitude of the German people, old and young. They stare at you sullenly, insolently, or just look the other way. Some of the kids, unable to cover their fiercer emotions, stick out their tongues, spit at you, or take mock pistol shots at you.................(Chapter 12)

............Our troops rescued some of our former Signal Company men from the enemy the other day. Sammy Boxman, of whom I have written you many times, is still a prisoner. He was separated from other prisoners and put in a special camp for Jews, and nothing has been heard from him since then.............................(Chapter 12)

............We crossed the pontoon bridge early in the bridgehead period and were covered by a special smokescreen. Of course, you know that our division took Mannheim which was badly damaged in the heart of the city..........................(Chapter 12)

...........Gone now are those early Spring days we spent lazily in the green hills of Alsace, and, instead we are rumbling around in a rugged terrain and surrounded by a mute, hostile people. We were accustomed to the friendly populace of Alsace, especially in the Saar region around Saaraguemines and Bitche, in which locality we thrived for many weeks.......................(Chapter 12)